Gaming earbuds remain a relatively niche part of two markets – a Venn Diagram between those looking for a gaming headset and those looking for some new true wireless earbuds.
I’m still waiting for a pair that truly feels like a perfect solution to both questions and while Razer’s latest earbuds do a fairly solid job, they still fall short on a couple of key points.
Razer Hammerhead Pro HyperSpeed
These earbuds are great for gaming in a way that’s a little more casual than a headset, but their extremely mediocre microphone performance means they’re just not quite at the level required for a daily driver.
Pros
- Comfortable
- Good sound quality
- Low latency
Cons
- Too expensive
- Microphones aren’t up to scratch
- Sub-par battery life
Design
- Available in black only
- Weighs 59g total
The Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed are a familiar set of earbuds, using a very similar design indeed to previous Hammerhead models. This means they have a prominent stem in the old-fashioned AirPods vein.
The top of the earbud is a chunkier affair, though, rounding into the bud and with an RGB-lit Razer icon on the outside that pulses through a set of colours while you play.
This makes them much more immediately gamer-y than some alternatives from the likes of EPOS, which may not be according to everyone’s tastes.
Available in black only, they’re fairly inconspicuous aside from that lighting, although even being charitable their overall look does tend towards the “knock-off AirPods” end of the market, sadly.
There’s something about the straight, unremarkable stems that just doesn’t look great, to my eyes, but it’s far from a deal-breaking bit of design.
Slipping the earbuds in, they’re light and comfortable to wear despite these design reservations, and I was happily able to game for hours at a time without any discomfort.
The case is a somewhat chunky one, black plastic with a matte finish, but it’s still easily pocketable and has a solid closing mechanism along with an LED light to give you an indication of the earbuds’ status.
That case charges wirelessly or by USB-C, an added convenience that I very much appreciate.
Sound quality
Razer is a gaming brand, so gaming is obviously the primary intended use for the Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed, and I found them a really solid option on this front.
Playing singleplayer titles, a high-end gaming headset can sometimes leave you feeling over-immersed if you’re not in the mood for all-consuming audio, and these earbuds are a nice middle ground compared to tinny TV speakers.
They sound full and rounded with a decent whack of bass, but also are not as boomingly powerful as my normal choice, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, in a way that I actually came to appreciate.
It’s a luxury to be able to pick between multiple good gaming audio sources, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that the Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed became part of my rotation.
The earbuds also have adaptive noise-cancelling, which isn’t exactly the best I’ve tried but still makes a small difference in terms of background noise and hubbub, which I could see being useful for commuters.
Listening to music from my phone, they perform solidly enough, although couldn’t really hold a candle to the AirPods Pro, which means they’re harder to justify for everyday use away from gaming.
Where things really fell apart for me was when partied up, though – I play a lot of Warzone and Rocket League with friends, and this is the first headset or equivalent in ages that has led to constant complaints from teammates while I’ve gamed.
The audio pickup is simply not good enough for a $200 purchase here, with tinny echoes and a clipped sound on the edge of everything. It means that they became impossible to use with company, which is hardly a ringing endorsement.
Battery life and features
- Three-hour battery life, 24 more in case
- Wireless dongle for low-latency play
More bad news for Razer comes in the battery department – even when you turn off the RBG lighting and ANC to save on battery life, you’re still going to be getting around three hours on a single charge, and not much more.
That’s just not a very solid use-time for gaming earbuds or any earbuds for that matter, and when you compare it to headsets that can last hundreds of hours between charges, it gets far more worrisome.
This is a big hit to usability, and I did indeed find that longer sessions came to a premature end because my earbuds started warning me about battery life, which is far from ideal.
The case brings the overall battery life up to 24 hours before you actually have to plug it in, but that’s a bit of a workaround given you won’t be able to wear the earbuds while you charge them.
Connectivity itself is very solid though. You get an included USB-C dongle to connect to phones, consoles and other devices, and this gives reliable low-latency performance with no lag whatsoever.
You can also connect via Bluetooth and do both at the same time if you want to take a call from your phone while gaming on your PS5, for example, as unlikely as that might be.
Verdict
My wait for some truly compelling gaming earbuds goes on – the Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed from Razer tick some solid boxes, from connectivity to comfort and sound, but have some game-breaking hangups in the form of sub-par battery life and a sub-standard mic.
These hold them back and make them hard to recommend to anyone, given that a headset for half their price would do as good a job – not to mention leave you with $100 to get some everyday earbuds without much of a struggle.